What software for pc drawing?

[rutledj]

What software (if any) do you use for creating schematics/pcb boards. I've been playing around with autotrax but get frustrated at the lack of parts (normally used in stompbox design).

rut

[TheBigMan]

All the schematics and stripboard layouts I've done were done with MS Paint.

[Paul Marossy]

I use AutoCAD to draw up my PCBs.

[LoKi6922]

i've been using electronics workbench multisim...

a little bit of getting used to for a guy who usually doodles on napkins and the backs of receipts... :lol:

[dpresley58]

AutoCAD here, too.

[nelson]

MS visio to draw transfers and layouts. just like drawing on graph paper but quicker. I also draw my schematics with MS Visio, it has a huge library of schematic symbols.

[rutledj]

I can see drawing the schematic in the various tools but which ones (if any) can take the schematic and create a pcb  layout for it?  If you create these by hand, how do you get the pin spacing correct for things like ic sockets?

Rut

[kdog]

I can see drawing the schematic in the various tools but which ones (if any) can take the schematic and create a pcb  layout for it?  If you create these by hand, how do you get the pin spacing correct for things like ic sockets?

Rut

I've successfully done this with the free version of Eagle. You draw the schematic in Eagle and it can generate a PCB in it's PCB editor for you with some minor effort. It was the only free tool I could find that did auto-routing and I have no desire to spend too much time on that section of the process... It's user interface is sort of counter intuitive at first but it works really well, so for me it's worth it, even though it doesn't seem to be super popular here. The "small" version is free and is capable enough to handle pretty much any pedal project. I use it for all of my own schematic drawing, now.

It's here:
http://www.cadsoft.de/

[gaussmarkov]

I can see drawing the schematic in the various tools but which ones (if any) can take the schematic and create a pcb  layout for it?  If you create these by hand, how do you get the pin spacing correct for things like ic sockets?

Rut

I've successfully done this with the free version of Eagle. It's user interface is sort of counter intuitive but it works really well. The "small" version is free and is capable enough to handle pretty much any pedal project.

+1

and i have been trying to build up a library of components that fit well with the stompbox world.  when it's presentable i will post it.  unless someone else has already got something to share?  (hint, hint ...  :wink: )

fwiw, i like working from the schematic to the pcb layout (as in eagle).  schematics seem easier (to me) to enter correctly.  then i do not worry about whether my pcb is consistent with the schematic because eagle keeps track of that.